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Friday, July 24, 2009

GRAPHIC CLASSICS: OSCAR WILDE, AMBROSE BIERCE & RAFAEL SABATINI

By Nate StearnsStaff Writer

My first exposure to classic literature was a Star Trek comic that had Captain Kirk and his crew somehow tracing the journey of Odysseus as he tried to make it back home to Penelope. I’m sure Penelope was some green-skinned alien. I still remember the changing contours of Kirk’s face as he was tied to the mast of the ship so that he could hear the Sirens’ song without going looney and crashing the ship. Whenever I teach the Odyssey I have to constantly remind myself there are no Prime Directives, phasers or Vulcan mind melds involved.

When I read THE GRAPHIC CLASSICS series, they seem to be made for the classroom. The series is a set of graphic novels of classic adventure stories – Poe, Stevenson, London, Conan Doyle – with a swarm of adapters and artists. For instance, the Ambrose Bierce volume gathers together 31 artists and writers in only 137 pages to take their shots at the misanthropic genius’s work (the Oscar Wilde volume is more leisurely – only five much longer sections). There are pages from “The Devil’s Dictionary” as well as from much more obscure pieces such as “Moxon’s Master.” That seems a natural approach to take as it would be impossible to amass the number of volumes the series contains (17 volumes and counting!) by employing one artist/writer team.

Furthermore, you can see the rationale behind the series. Imagine a reading-resistant boy (and the vast majority of these volumes are boy-centric, though a volume of Louisa May Alcott is due out soon) being given one of these graphic novels and it’s not impossible to imagine that he might find something engaging about these stories as they are illustrated. Yes, something is lost in some of the stories as they get simplified, but it’s also hard to imagine some of my students being willing to sit down with “The Picture of Dorian Gray” or even “Captain Blood.” We live in a visual society and it may be that out literature classes will need to accommodate that somewhat.

The problems I have with the Graphic Classics series is not the dumbing down of literature but the havoc that is wreaked with the constantly shifting succession of artists. Some of this art is absolutely stunning: Bierce’s “Oil of Dog” is illustrated by Annie Owens who captures the creepy strangeness of the tail with deft lines. I wish I could have read the entire volume with her work.

Other artists either have styles that simply don’t match up well with the material or are honestly not very good. The mishmash of styles and approaches adds up to volumes that lack any possibility of unity. The books practically force you to thumb through them rather than read them cover-to-cover. Therefore, it might make sense to have copies of these books in your library to pull down for Silent Sustained Reading periods, but the idea of buying a class set and trying to teach with them seems difficult to imagine.

Still, they are reasonably inexpensive (10$ each!) and each volume contains gems as well as groaners. What I want, no doubt, is implausible. I’d love to see classic works that are translated by talented artists into works that maintain a sustained vision throughout the piece (see Peter Kuper’s THE METAMORPHOSIS). I want to be able to reach out to the student who has no reason to believe that literature has any value to him, but beyond bamboozling him with pretty pictures, I want to introduce him to the possibilities that literature embodies and imagine that—in time—he’ll also want to pick up the original … even without the art.

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About TGC

The Graphic Classroom is a resource for teachers and librarians to help them stock high quality, educational-worthy, graphic novels and comics in their classroom or school library. I read and review every graphic novel or comic on this blog and give it a rating as to appropriateness for the classroom.

Submit Your Comics

Would you like your comic or graphic novel reviewed here at THE GRAPHIC CLASSROOM? You can do so in two ways, one of which is guaranteed and the other is not:

1. Send me a copy of the comic or graphic novel. I will read it and review it as soon as possible. You can email me privately and I will give you my mailing address. abikerbard@mac.com

2. You can simply tell me about your creation.

If you send me a copy, then I will review your submission. I will be honest and fair and do my best to get your book reviewed in a timely manner. I am a full time graduate student, so my time is limited. If I receive a lot of books, then I will put them on a first-come, first-reviewed list and do the best I can.

If you cannot or will not send me a media copy of your book, then you can just request that I review it. My money is short, as I am going to school and not working, so you are depending on my ability to afford your book. There is no guarantee that I will get to your work nor any guarantee that I will even review it. If I can afford it and have time to read it, then I will most certainly review it. It's all about the teachers, librarians and kids.

Reviews are never based on free media copies. I am writing my Master's Thesis on the subject of comics in the classroom, so this is important to me. I am committed to this and I take reviews very seriously. I do not rip into books in order to get readership. I will have a critical eye, but I am also excited about helping teachers find great books for the classroom.

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About The Editor

My name is Chris Wilson. My first name is Jack, which is why you see it on the posts, but I usually go by my middle name: Chris. Having worked as the Managing Editor for a weekly newspaper then as the Director of a non-profit for people with disabilities, I have gone back to school. I am now a full time graduate student in the college of education at Missouri State University. I am getting my Masters of Science in Education – Elementary Education.

I know that reading is a problem for many students today. I feel strongly that comics and graphic novels can be one way that we can combat this problem. Graphics novels should be in every public school library and classroom library. That is why I am choosing to write my thesis on using comics and graphic novels in the elementary classroom.

Email Meabikerbard@mac.com

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Disclaimer

Some comic literature is not appropriate for every classroom, or every community. Some are not appropriate for any classroom. You need to review any piece of comic literature for yourself and determine if it is appropriate for your grade, class, curriculum, goals, school and community.